Recent submissions:

Globalization is an important theme in a broad set of conversations, from everyday talks
to political and academic debates, both in positive and also negative terms. But what are the
positive implications of globalization for the economic development of the countries? Do the
effects of globalization on innovation differ between developed and developing economies?
This PhD dissertation aims to explore these questions by identifying under which conditions
globalization – conceived as a process fostering knowledge flows at a global scale – has played
an important role in the innovation process.
The contribution of this dissertation is to the field of geography of innovation. Despite
recent research on the spatial dimension of sources of innovation, this field still remains focused
on the impact of local and global linkages, for firms in the advanced economies. This thesis
contributes to this matter, by extending the discussion also to the organizational learning of
firms from emerging economies.
Theoretically, it builds on contributions from innovation studies, economic geography
and international business. Empirically, the focus is on firm level data gathered from emerging
economies (BRICS) as well as several European countries.
The thesis consists of an introductory chapter followed by a literature review on previous
works related to spatial aspects of knowledge sourcing for learning and innovation, three essays
at different stages of publication, and finally conclusions.
Contextualizing the searching behaviour and the engagement in global collaborations is
at the core of all three papers. By using firm level data and conducting comparative studies
between advanced (North) and emerging economies (South), the first two papers analyse the
impact of global knowledge flows for novelty of innovation. The third paper explores the impact
of high level of local embeddedness on firm’s engagement in global sourcing of knowledge; this
paper relies on data from Indian firms
The first paper investigates the effects of local and global innovation collaborations on
the degree of novelty in innovations of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the information
and communications technology (ICT) sector by considering the country in which these firms
are located. The findings of this study show that global linkages do indeed impact on the degree of novelty of innovation. However, this impact is highly positive on the innovativeness of
Scandinavian firms, whereas for the Indian SMEs, the regional linkages matter most.
The second paper explores the role played by active collaboration with users on the
degree of novelty of innovation by focusing on the location of both users and producers. The
results indicate that collaborating with international users is positively related to higher degrees
of novelty. Furthermore, firms in low- and middle-income countries benefit more from South-
South user collaboration than from South-North collaboration.
The third paper addresses the relation between high level of local embeddedness and
engagement in global linkages for innovations -as a pre-requisite for catching-up- by comparing
the engagement of group-affiliated firms, that are expected to present higher degree of internal
collaboration, with standalone firms. The results indicate that affiliation to a business group also
increases the likelihood of engagement in global linkages for innovation.

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New firms are a driving force of innovation and creative destruction, promoting social mobility and
welfare creation. These result from the effort of entrepreneurial individuals who identify an
opportunity, evaluate it, and create new organizations to exploit its business potential.
Entrepreneurship is connected to existing organizations because the phenomenon of new firm
foundation can be viewed in the vast majority of cases as a career choice of workers who found new
firms following a period in wage employment. Extant literature in labor economics however
prevalently focuses on individuals viewed as employees, thus overlooking the dynamic and
transitory nature of entrepreneurship. This thesis consists of three essays on entrepreneurship that
integrate the labor market literature with the entrepreneurship research. The first essay considers the
entrepreneurial implications the founders’ pre-entry experiences in the labor market, by studying
the impact of a varied career pattern in connection to the performance of new ventures. The second
essay regards one important dimension of labor markets, i.e. the turnover of workers, in connection
to entrepreneurship. The essay provides a dynamic analysis of an experience in entrepreneurship
and its impact on workers’ turnover. The third essay explores how the existing organizations impact
on the choices to become an entrepreneur. In particular, it is shown that a firm attribute such as
tournament might produce a different effect on entrepreneurial individuals working in small firms
as opposed to those employed in larger firms.
All the essays draw on the IDA database, the integrated database for labor market research that is
maintained by Statistics Denmark. The rich set of information available in IDA makes it possible to
track individuals, their employers and the founders of new firms, thus enabling the study of
entrepreneurs in connection to their experience in the labor market.

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The co-location of industry in agglomerations of similar and related firms is one of
the salient features of the contemporary global economy. Over the last thirty years, a
large body of theory and case-literature has addressed this phenomenon and sought to
understand the advantages that accrue when industries are spatially clustered.
Contemporary scholars in this tradition have focused on the advantages of face-toface
interaction and the access to spatially sticky information in the form of buzz
available to cluster agents. They have further suggested that the development of local
conventions and a local idiom facilitate knowledge circulation and collaboration
within clusters while perhaps frustrating access to outsiders. The resultant learning
views of agglomeration have become dominant within the field of economic
geography.
In the past decade, however, this dominant view has been challenged by a
counterview challenging the idea that physical proximity is neither necessary nor
sufficient for economic learning. First, it has been noted that much of the learning that
occurs in clusters may actually be organized through various forms temporary
proximity. Secondly, it has been argued that knowledge circulates not by virtue of
spatial proximity, but through participation in knowledge communities that share a
basic epistemological framework and common purpose. These communities may be
spatially clustered or may be widely dispersed.
The research presented in this dissertation aims to contribute to this debate on the
relative importance of physical and relational proximity to processes of economic
learning. It does so through a qualitative study of the European Animation Industry
and its attempt to build supportive networks and institutions resembling those found
in successful geographic clusters, but in the context of a spatially dispersed industry.
It demonstrates how through the extensive use of temporary proximity in the form of
conferences, market places, and workshops, European animation was able to create a
dense social fabric supporting learning and collaboration among firms that were both
geographically and culturally distant. The dissertation is developed in three distinct articles written for journal publication.
These are followed by Appendix One discussing methodological issue related to the
research, Appendix Two providing empirical introduction to European Animation, the
object of the dissertation’s case study. They are followed by a brief conclusion
discussing the dissertations findings.

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Empirical Investigations into Entrepreneurial Activities of Hackers and Makers

Halbinger, Maria(Frederiksberg, 2014)

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Abstract:

New ventures are central to an economy’s welfare and substantial promoters of technological
change and innovation. Extant research has identified individuals and their role in entrepreneurial
processes as the core pillars of entrepreneurship. This PhD dissertation aims to refine our
understanding of the fundamental relationship between individuals and their entrepreneurial
activities.
In order to empirically test the hypotheses built, the analyses are based on a unique dataset
on individuals in hacker- and makerspaces, i.e. open communities with physical workspaces where
individuals with a common interest in technology, computing, science, art and hacking culture can
meet, socialize and collaborate. Given that hackers and makers engage in various entrepreneurial
activities, this empirical setting offers crucial benefits when analyzing entrepreneurial individuals.
The thesis combines the literatures on psychology and entrepreneurship and consists of three
essays. The first essay focuses on the early activities in the entrepreneurial process and depicts how
the individual’s creativity as well as different forms of motivation influence different process
activities including the discovery and exploitation of opportunities. The second essay consists of a
longitudinal analysis and examines how the identity of the founder relates to firm exit. The third
essay applies computational linguistic tools on haiku poems written by hackers to investigate how
self-confidence, social awareness and social influence are related with entrepreneurial experience,
defined by the number of times the individual has been involved in new firm establishments.
Overall, the thesis aims to contribute to the field of entrepreneurship by providing empirical
evidence on the individual-level factors that shape entrepreneurial activities.

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Innovation is the engine of sustained organizational performance and is central to organizations’
competitive advantage. In an effort to understand how to foster innovation at firms, extant research has
highlighted the role of organizational learning in shaping innovation capabilities at firms. Motivated by
the importance of innovation, this PhD dissertation aims to improve our understanding of the complex
relationship between organizational learning and innovation capabilities at firms.
The dissertation consists of three studies using various datasets and methodologies that
investigate the relationship between organizational learning and innovation creation in an
organizational context. Taking a nuanced view of organizational learning, the dissertation investigates
how three different organizational learning processes could affect innovation creation at the firm level
and project level. Specifically, essay 1 focuses on how to manage ambidextrous learning for superior
radical and incremental innovation capabilities; essay 2 examines how learning through knowledge
sharing in the context of standard setting impacts on firms’ innovation performance; and essay 3
moves down to project level and explores how and when strategic decision comprehensiveness can
affect new product development performance.
Taken together, though examining three separate approaches that firms employ to manage
organizational learning for innovation creation, the three studies in this dissertation collectively
contribute to the understanding of managing organizational learning for innovation creation at firms.
The three studies in this dissertation show how three prominent organizational learning processes
impact on firms’ innovation performance. Furthermore, the studies in this dissertation emphasize that
there are limitation and boundary conditions for different organizational learning processes.